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Monday, January 28, 2013

A Biomarker for CFS/ME?

The
study referred to in this news report was published in 2011. (See
below for a link.) The researchers compared cerebrospinal fluid
from 10 healthy controls with the fluid from people with CFS (using
the Fukuda case definition) and with Neurologic Post Treatment Lyme
disease syndrome (nPTLS), two conditions that share common
symptoms of fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. The rationale for the
study was that "despite extensive research,
CFS and nPTLS remain medically unexplained.
There are no biological markers to distinguish these syndromes,
creating diagnostic dilemmas and impeding research into understanding
each individual syndrome."

After
examining the cerebrospinal fluid samples, the research team
discovered distinct sets of proteins which could accurately
distinguish between the two illnesses and differentiated them from
healthy controls. The study identified 738 proteins that were found
in CFS, but
not in either healthy normal controls or nPTLS; 2) 1,582
proteins that were not identified in CFS, but were in
either nPTLS disease or healthy normal controls; 3) 692
proteins that were identified in the nPTLS patients, but
not in healthy normal controls or CFS; and 4) 1,597 proteins
that were not identified in nPTLS, but
were identified in either healthy normal controls or CFS. (Of
further interest the researchers noted that the CDK5 pathway, was
"significantly enriched" for proteins found exclusively in
the CFS fluid. The researchers pointed out that this signaling
pathway has been linked to Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, two
neurological diseases.)

The
significance of this study is that the analysis of proteins in
cerebrospinal fluid could serve as a biomarker for CFS.